This invention comprises a knee brace for stabilization and protection of a human knee joint with its hinge designed to have the same kinematics as the human knee. This brace is specially designed for most athletic sports, particularly contact sports, which involve potential knee injuries. It may be worn by athletes who have severely weakened knee joints so that the athletes may participate in their sport without fear of reinjuring the knee.
The typical knee brace used in sports medicine consists of a single pivot pin or double pivot pins known as polycentric hinges. These types of hinges prevent leg braces from conforming to the wearer's leg through all range of motion of the knee. Among such braces are the HT Racing Brace by HT Racing of Placentia, Calif., Ortho-Tech Brace by The One Shop of Westwood, Calif., Lennox Hill Derotation Brace by Lennox Hill Brace of Long Island City, NY, C.T.I. Brace by Innovation Sports of Irvine, Calif., AMX 2 EVS Brace by Fairing Imports of Beverly Hills, Calif., and Pro-Am Brace by Pro-Am Braces, Inc, of Boston, Ma..
The following patents are attempts in achieving the same kinematics as the human knee.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,539 of Townsend discloses a knee joint hinge with two curved slots and a straight slot segmented to each curved slot on the femoral member, and with two pins on the tibial member. This hinge rotates and slides for a predetermined articulation then rotates about the center.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,201 of Pirmantgen discloses a knee joint hinge with a narrow arcuate bearing surface of varying radii of curvature on the femoral member, and a horizontal elongated slot on the tibial side bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,129 of Aaserude is essentially a polycentric hinge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,751 of Bledsoe discloses a knee joint hinge with two arcuate cam slots on the femoral members, two pins on the tibial members and also including circular toothed plates with slots for restricting the range of articulation.